Press coverage of the Auburn, New York "Crow Shoot"

Here you'll find links to various articles, editorials, and letters about the controversy surrounding a wildlife-killing contest held each February in Cayuga County, New York. Links are arranged chronologically from oldest to newest.

Last update: November 27^th, 2005.

2003 coverage

• Cartoon: Comic View
  Auburn Citizen - January 28, 2003
  (A crow reading a newspaper article titled "Crow shoot turns off charities" says "I ain't too thrilled either!")
• Editorial: The back-burner problem, crows
  Auburn Citizen - January 29, 2003
  Some of the blame for this weekend's crude crow shoot can be assigned to City Hall inaction. City leaders, and county health officials as well, have given a low priority to the clouds of crows that provide so much annoyance and so many punch lines.
• Braced for the hunt
  Auburn Citizen - January 31, 2003
  Like many people who are opposed to the countywide crow-shoot tournament this weekend, Hoss Firooznia hopes to save as many hunted birds as he can.
• Crow shoot begins this morning
  Auburn Citizen - Feb 1, 2003
  More than 140 hunters were expected to be out in force this morning, scouring the countryside for crows as the controversial shoot was starting.
• 151 crows dead, 4 activists cited
  Auburn Citizen - Feb 2, 2003
  Hunters downed 151 crows and four protesters were arrested Saturday as the first day of this weekend's countywide crow shoot ended with hunters and anti-hunters vowing to continue their efforts today.
• From across the state, protesters flock to Auburn
  Auburn Citizen - Feb 2, 2003
  As three cats slumbered nearby, Rita Sarnicola fielded calls in her Owasco home[...] As the unofficial coordinator for a loose confederacy opposed to this weekend's crow shoot, she was busy sunrise to sunset Saturday, relaying information to locals and visitors from as far as Washington, D.C.
• Teen team bags only one bird, but enjoys day afield
  Auburn Citizen - Feb 2, 2003
  Jeff Hall, Jeff Bouton, Kevin Shafer and Dan Lennox - all 18-year-old high school seniors - stayed up to midnight playing pool, throwing darts and listening to music. But shortly after 5 a.m., the foursome was on the road, bound for the Sempronius back country, ready to hunt crow...
• Is a Bird Hunt Pest control or a Murder of Crows?
  New York Times - Feb 2, 2003
  A letter to the editor of a local paper called the hunters "beer-guzzling Gomers," a label that an organizer of the shoot, Thomas Lennox, quickly embraced. He said he planned to have T-shirts made with the phrase printed across the front.
• Editorial: Crows remain an Auburn problem
  Auburn Citizen - Feb 3, 2003
  Hours after the shooting stopped, crows were abundant in the trees along the Owasco Outlet. So many perched on branches they looked like fat leaves. The crow shoot Saturday and Sunday made barely a dent in the population, estimated at 50,000 crows. Did anyone think it would?
• Editorial: Lording over the crows
  Auburn Citizen - Feb 3, 2003
  I just hope that any extra-terrestrials traveling through our galaxy will decide not to terminate us even though we have befouled our planet with pollution and waste. As a sentient being, I would not appreciate others playing "god" with my future.
• Winners bagged 82 birds in two days
  Auburn Citizen - Feb 3, 2003
  For the four hunters from Ontario County who won Spinouts' crow shoot, this was not a controversial weekend. They hunt and fish almost every Saturday and Sunday, and they offer no apologies for what they do.
• Hunters shoot, activists shout
  Auburn Citizen - Feb 3, 2003
  With a Bible in his left hand, Bill Atkinson quoted scripture Sunday to explain why he thought it was wrong to participate in this past weekend's controversial crow hunt.
• Editorial: A crow hunt? Well, it's legal
  Auburn Citizen - Feb 4, 2003
  If the lowly crow inspired a cute, stuffed toy like the Teddy bear, its future would be assured. For now, we are left with a noisy, messy problem with no immediate solution. Kill a crow? Go ahead, it's legal. Just don't expect any encouragement from me.
• Letter: Crow shoot was not about crows
  Auburn Citizen - Feb 6, 2003
  Rita Sarnicola and Steve Johnson brought people into Auburn from out of town to call us names and threaten us. I bet these cowards didn't spend a cent in town, but they did succeed in making a mockery of their pathetic cause. The people of Cayuga County weren't fooled.
• Alumni Arrested At Crow Shooting
  Cornell Daily Sun - Feb 7, 2003
  After protesting a crow-shooting contest in Auburn, N.Y., animal rights activists Milo Polte '03, Brian Pease '00, Tim Slate '02 and Laura Carver were arrested on misdemeanor charges of trespassing and interfering with the legal taking of wildlife last Saturday.
• Sarnicola dominates first board meeting
  Auburn Citizen - June 1, 2003
  Seven months after the city's animal nuisance advisory committee was formed, its five members met for the first time Saturday.
• Duck blessed
  Auburn Citizen - Dec 8, 2003
  With crows swirling overhead and both the sun and the thermometer plummeting, 10 people gathered in front of the St. Francis the Assisi Church on Clark Street Sunday for a blessing of the wildlife.

2004 coverage

• 'Crow mobile' takes wing
  Auburn Citizen - January 23, 2004
  Two big crows flew overhead and landed on a branch in a nearby tree behind Spinouts Tavern, right before Tommy Lennox put the key into the ignition of his much-anticipated crow mobile Friday afternoon.
• This is for the birds
  Auburn Citizen - January 27, 2004
  The crow hunters shot the first volley over the weekend with the unveiling of their crow mobile. And now crow supporters want to be heard.
• Council preys for help on birds
  Auburn Citizen - January 29, 2004
  Mayor Tim Lattimore would like to explore whether hiring a falconer could help eliminate some of the city's crows.
• Counting crows proves problematic
  Auburn Citizen - Feb 1, 2004
  They come to congregate around Fort Hill Cemetery and in city neighborhoods. As dusk comes, thousands more settle in trees along the Owasco Outlet, near the Arterial and South Street for a good night's sleep. So how can someone know how many crows there are?
• Editorial: Council needs more options to crow issue
  Auburn Citizen - Feb 2, 2004
  Auburn City Council was given a great show last Thursday evening by Falconer Mark Westman, [who] talked about the possibility of using attack mode to move the crows out of the city. [However], the council needs to explore all options relating to the crows.
• Crow hunt causes controversy
  Syracuse News 10 Now - Feb 6, 2004
  Every winter like clock work, thousands of crows fly into to Auburn and leave their calling cards on cars, buildings and even a few heads. Some are bothered by the birds while others don't seem to mind as much.
• Birds outsmart hunters
  Auburn Citizen - Feb 8, 2004
  Although LaFayette resident Jim Booth usually has no problem tracking down a deer or turkey to shoot, he underestimated just how wily the crow can be - at least when it is not roosting in the city.
• Auburn's controversial crow hunt ends today
  Syracuse News 10 Now - Feb 9, 2004
  Today is the last day for the second annual Crow Shoot in Cayuga County. The support and opposition this hunt has brought on is quite controversial.
• Editorial: Crow solutions seem campy
  Auburn Citizen - Feb 9, 2004
  [Lennox] claims the legitimacy for having a weekend saunter into slaughter is to raise money for charity. I can't help wondering if more money was raised by protesters for this charity, if Mr. Lennox would call the whole bloodfest off.
• Editorial: Crow lovers, hunters revel in media squawk
  Auburn Citizen - Feb 9, 2004
  And this morning, they were still here. The crows, thousands of them, still circling around parking lots, rifling through garbage bags, and standing watch in the trees.
• Hunters bag over 1,000 birds
  Auburn Citizen - Feb 9, 2004
  For the second consecutive year, the Crow Dogs of Stanley, Ontario County, took home the bragging rights as the most bountiful hunters during this weekend's crow hunt.
• Protesters chant, rally at City Hall
  Auburn Citizen - Feb 9, 2004
  Cindy Ryan's grandchildren were so upset knowing that birds were going to die during this weekend's controversial crow hunt they cried.
• Cartoon: Comic View
  Auburn Citizen - Feb 10, 2004
  (A crow at the end of a shotgun crows "Cock-a-doodle-doo!")
• Editorial: Political lessons from a crow hunt
  Auburn Citizen - Feb 10, 2004
  Concerned about Auburn's reputation over the recent crow hunt? This event is now known nationwide.
• Police: City Hall vandals outsiders
  Auburn Citizen - Feb 13, 2004
  City police believe that a group of animal rights activists from Syracuse University was responsible for the vandalism at Memorial City Hall during last weekend's protests of the annual crow hunt.
• USDA may be choice for crows
  Auburn Citizen - Feb 17, 2004
  With just a fraction of Auburn's population, Utica received help from the federal government to get rid of a roost of crows that had invaded the Oneida County city. And Mayor Tim Lattimore wants to find out if the U.S. Department of Agriculture can do the same thing for Auburn.
• Editorial: Hits & Misses
  Auburn Citizen - Feb 17, 2004
  By spray painting both the city building and the gazebo across the street, the vandals redirected the message of what was a peaceful, organized protest of the annual hunt. This illegal activism smears more than public buildings. It smears the public perception of crow supporters.
• Editorial: Crow hazing program may be right for city
  Auburn Citizen - Feb 18, 2004
  The price is right. It's government-approved. Therefore, it's worthy of further investigation. The U.S. Department of Agriculture helped Utica get rid of its crow problem. Perhaps the federal government can help Auburn as well.
• Editorial: Humans, not crows, the real nuisance
  Auburn Citizen - Feb 19, 2004
  Well, it seems the crows have won the war. It also seems that city government has taken to grasping at straws to solve the crow problem (if it is a problem).
• Crows move, but not far
  Auburn Citizen - Feb 20, 2004
  Parsons Street resident David Monroe thinks he knows where all the crows driven out of downtown this week have ended up. Or at least a lot of them. He claims they've been hanging around in trees in his yard and in his neighborhood.
• Bill targets crow hunts
  Auburn Citizen - Feb 26, 2004
  State lawmakers will take a second look at a bill to ban hunting contests like the crow shoot held in Auburn earlier this month. In the coming weeks, the state Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee will reconsider a bill introduced last year by a downstate assemblywoman.

2005 coverage

• 63,800
  Auburn Citizen - January 06, 2005
  And the latest crow count is ... 63,800. Three members of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services Program and two Department of Environmental Conservation officials woke early Wednesday morning to count crows and document their desired locations.
• Scientists Use Hazing to Drive Crows Away
  Associated Press - January 11, 2005
  In a city where a huge flock of crows has been pestering people for years, officials are fighting back with a hazing program aimed at disrupting the birds' sleep with noise and light and driving them into the countryside.
• N.Y. Town to Crows: Nevermore
  National Public Radio - January 16, 2005
  (Audio) The United States Department of Agriculture is attempting to scare more than 60,000 crows out of Auburn, N.Y. Hear reporter Skye Rohde.
• Harassment project reduces crow flock
  Associated Press - January 19, 2005
  A week of noisy hazing by scientists has driven away nearly two-thirds of this upstate New York's massive flock of crows.
• The hunt is on
  Auburn Citizen - January 21, 2005
  It has elicited national media attention, protesting, hunters from a handful of states, spray-painted graffiti on city property, trespassing arrests, barroom debates and a law proposal in Albany.
• Editorial: Crow program reasonable on city and wallet
  Auburn Citizen - January 24, 2005
  While crow supporters may have wished that we could all just get along, we fully support the city's decision to hire the USDA to help disperse the huge crow population this week.
• Crows roosting outside of city
  Auburn Citizen - January 29, 2005
  More than 62,000 crows have moved out of the downtown area to take up nighttime roosting spots in towns surrounding Auburn.
• Auburn's 'loss' Geneva's gain?
  Finger Lakes Times - February 4, 2005
  The number of crows roosting in Geneva, or more specifically in trees near the Routes 5&20 arterial bridge and the area behind South Main Street homes seems to have grown over the past three years.
• Crows creep into new roosts in city
  Auburn Citizen - February 5, 2005
  A large percentage of Auburn's crows have returned to the city and the U.S. Department of Agriculture will be dipping into its own funds to continue dispersing them from city trees.
• Editorial: Crow hunt a drunken fiasco
  Auburn Citizen - February 7, 2005
  It is a fact that human beings are, by nature, predatory creatures. If we were not, we would have our eyes on the side of our head like the deer, not out on the front of our face like the tiger. The position of our eyes gives us depth perception, which helps us hunt our prey.
• State has no plans to stop Auburn's annual crow hunt
  New York Newsday - February 7, 2005
  State officials won't stop a controversial annual crow hunt here, saying there's no evidence hunters illegally used bait to lure the birds. Opponents asked the Humane Society of the United States to help stop the contest, which will be held this weekend.
• Editorial: Hunters provide valuable service
  Auburn Citizen - February 8, 2005
  Crow Hunt 2005 is scheduled for February 11-13. I'm sure that the "Colonel Sanders" of crows, Tom Lennox, would like to thank the "Crow Queen," Rita Sarnicola, for protesting the event. Her squawks and caws have gotten the attention of hundreds of hunters throughout the country.
• Editorial: If crows keep coming back, USDA shouldn't
  Auburn Citizen - February 9, 2005
  Moving crows out for a week or two is not worth the $13,000. This may be an exciting project for the USDA, which has never moved a roost this large, but after the feathers have cleared, results are what matter.
• Whether you shoot or not, crow hunt's become an event
  Auburn Citizen - February 10, 2005
  If being a part of a national news story sounds like an entertaining way to spend your weekend, then grab your gun, get your small game license and head over to J & B Bar and Grill on Orchard Street for the third annual Cayuga County Crows Unlimited Crow Shoot.
• Party preparations
  Auburn Citizen - February 11, 2005
  From across the state, and parts beyond, they will descend on Auburn. Some will bring their weapons, and some will bring their signs.
• 800 crows downtown, 28,000 in city
  Auburn Citizen - February 12, 2005
  U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services biologists were back in town this week to take another count of Auburn's crows. Director Richard Chipman said about 800 birds were spotted in downtown areas and 28,000 were counted city-wide.
• Fewer teams, but more crows bagged
  Auburn Citizen - February 13, 2005
  Crows and snow fell from the sky Saturday morning and into the afternoon as men dressed in camouflage and armed with shotguns headed to fields all over Central New York to take part in the Cayuga County Crows Unlimited 3rd Annual Crow Shoot. Event organizer Tommy Lennox said the body count at 7:30 p.m. was 785 crows killed by 31 teams.
• Editorial: Ending crow protests could end crow hunt
  Auburn Citizen - February 13, 2005
  By raising a ruckus each year over the crow hunt, these crow supporters are helping to draw attention to the event. The letters, the stories, the appeals, the protests ... all help elevate a story that actually deserves less ink as every year passes. And the more attention the protesters draw to Auburn's hunt, the more hunters are likely to enter.
• Thinning flock
  Auburn Citizen - February 14, 2005
  After being on pace Saturday to shatter last year's number of kills, hunters at Cayuga County Crows Unlimited third-annual shoot only bagged 1,061 crows in all, six fewer than last year.
• Tourists watch famous Auburn crows
  Auburn Citizen - November 27, 2005
  Some tourists visiting Auburn this weekend proposed a new economic development model for Auburn: crow-watching. While some city residents might find this incredulous, 11 tourists came by caravan from New York City, New Paltz and Albany to join the "Crow Wildlife Watch," sponsored by the pro-crow group Citizens Respectful of Wildlife.